


Comfortember 16: Protective

by FlyinBanachab



Category: Fullmetal Alchemist (Anime 2003), Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Swearing, denny is precious, office politics, protect him at all costs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-05
Updated: 2020-11-05
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:55:29
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27238402
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FlyinBanachab/pseuds/FlyinBanachab
Summary: Maria Ross didn’t like to swear, but facts were facts: things were fucked up. The site, the day, the operation? All completely, absolutely, irrecoverably fucked.And it was Denny Brosh's fault.
Relationships: Denny Brosh & Maria Ross
Comments: 3
Kudos: 11
Collections: Comfortember 2020





	Comfortember 16: Protective

Maria Ross didn’t like to swear, but facts were facts: things were fucked up. The site, the day, the operation? All completely, absolutely, irrecoverably fucked.  


And it was Denny Brosh's fault.  


Ross sighed heavily. He's a _sergeant_ , he should know better by now. Cleaning up after him was going to take the rest of the day. And the whole time, Brosh was going to be trailing behind her like a puppy, endlessly apologizing, helping only when she reminded him to... well, the sooner she started, the sooner she'd finish.

Ross finished loading tools into the wheelbarrow and headed back to the crater, where she’d left Brosh to contemplate the nature of explosives. Before she could see him, though, she heard yelling, and ducked around a corner to listen.  


Oh, _wow, yikes_. Whoever he was, he was absolutely going _off_. Ross peeked around to get a look.

Sure enough, some perfectly generic looking captain was doing his best to push Brosh into the crater with the sheer force of his words. And Brosh was absolutely wilting under the onslaught, head hung so low his bangs completely hid his face.

"Yes sir, I-- I'm really sorry, sir I-- I guess I'm just an idiot, sir."  


He sounded utterly dejected. How in the world had he gotten through training? You can’t let this stuff get to you, man.  


"DAMN RIGHT YOU ARE," the captain bellowed, showering spit into Brosh's hair, jamming a finger into his chest. Brosh nodded pathetically. He might have been crying.  


Ok, no. Ross squared her shoulders, set her face, and pushed the wheelbarrow into the scene.  


"Is there a problem, sir?" She said sharply.  


"You know there is, lieutenant. Your sergeant here cost us the objective with his fumblefucking around! In all my days I have never seen such a goddamn lazy, incompetent, pathetic excuse for a soldier! He’s an embarrassment to our country! Why I--"  


"Don’t talk about my subordinate that way," Ross cut in, through gritted teeth.

This surprised him. "Excuse me?"  


“Don’t,” Ross repeated, pressing forward, inserting herself and the wheelbarrow in between Brosh and Captain Generic. It forced him to take a few steps backward, every one of which turned his face a shade redder.  


"Don’t talk about my subordinate that way. I'm the officer in charge here." She straightened. "If we failed at our objective," and they had, unquestionably, "then you have a problem with ME. Leave my enlisteds alone."

He seemed to find that proposal acceptable, and wound up to begin another tirade. He was shorter than her, Ross noticed suddenly, by several inches. Figures.

Ross waited until the moment he opened his mouth to speak, then cut him off. "ACTUALLY, CAPTAIN,” shouting over him until he shut up, “IF YOU HAVE A PROBLEM with the way we have conducted ourselves or this mission, you should take it up with our CO..." and she couldn't keep the smile completely off her face as she finished, "Major Armstrong."

The captain's jaw hung open for a second. His face went from cherry red to ghost white as he envisioned all those muscles.  


"Ah. Uh." He cleared his throat. "Well I see you're prepared to clean up your mess. I'll leave you to it." And he scurried away.

Once he was out of sight, Ross took a deep breath and unclenched her fists. There’s one in every unit. Turning, she found Brosh wiping his eyes. He gave her the biggest, goofiest, most starstruck smile she’d ever seen.  


"Lieutenant Ross, that was-- gosh, that was amazing!" Then his smile faltered. "You didn't have to... I mean, I know I screwed up, he was right..."

"No he wasn't," she said, matter-of-fact. "He was an asshole. You made a mistake, and it had major consequences, which sucks. But we all make mistakes; what's important is how we recover."

She thrust a shovel at him and he looked at her with big watery eyes.  


“You really--” sniffle-- “you really think so?” And the tears started streaming down his face again. “That’s so wise!”  


Ah geez. At this rate he'd try and hug her any second now. He’s _got_ to toughen up if he wants to make a career out of this.  


She imagined, briefly, the roles being reversed: what a Captain Brosh would say to a sergeant after such a disastrous mistake. He might wail and moan, worry about the consequences, laugh about the mess, but he would never, ever try to make someone else feel small.  


Ross awkwardly patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, man. We’ve got a lot of cleaning up to do."  


Brosh sniffled and snapped upright, saluting. "Yes, sir--ow!" Saluting with the hand holding the shovel. He chuckled sheepishly and rubbed his forehead.  


Ross gave him a sympathetic smile and turned toward the crater. It was gonna be a long day, but there were worse guys to spend it with.  



End file.
